I am a big fan of Contact in case it's not obvious
Do you think the goverment cover-up would have been made public?
Do you think mankind would have disabled the machine? -- Or retried it in the future?
Anyone else care really? Besides me? :b
What do you think would would happen if you were making the story for it?

I think it should focus on mankinds contributions to the universe. In the book, they eventually find the hidden message in PI (at least that was what I remembered). I don't know how interesting it would be, but the implications were both wonderful and exciting in concept.

More immediately, I could see those who attempt to perpetuate the cover up to keep the world as it is, and those who would fight to make the truth known and allow mankind to continue making it's 'small moves'.

Moderator

I think they should not have a sequel
I think this is a story that stands on its own, and is not meant to have a second act -- especially, not an X-Files / action-movie sequel.
Even the closing of the book (as Alex explained), I think is reasonably contained in the movie, thematically.

Actually, the machine was designed to work only once. It creates a 'pucker' in time/space which (when connected with another 'pucker' near the star Vega) creates a wormhole.

According to the book, the ETIs only created the terminating 'pucker' at Vega long enough for one voyage. After that, they turned off the receiving end until humans are ready to join the galactic family.

Without a 'pucker' at the far end, the machine does nothing; hence no possibility for a sequel.

"Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight." —Danny, Withnail and I

Ack, please no sequel! I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Contact is the WORST adaptation of a movie ever. It totally changed the whole theme of the book.

In the book Segan asks only that if God exists, why isn't there physical proof that scientists can look at and universally agree upon? Elle and the team are doubted, but they work hard and find the proof they need in Pi and other transcendental numbers.

In the movie, the filmakers tell us there is no proof that God exits, but we should still have faith anyway. Elle is embarrased and humiliated in order to learn this lesson.

They found my psych results fit a certain profile. A certain "Moral flexibility" would be the best way to describe it....

Yes, I thought Jodie Foster should have received an Oscar nomination for that one.

Personally, I always felt the movie should have ended much earlier -- on the closeup of her face, staring at something we don't see, tears in her eyes: "I had no idea." Cut to black -- no fade out -- and roll credits. No beach scene, no hearings.

It is really sad how overlooked this film was and is. IMHO, Contact is one of the 10 best sci-fi movies ever made, and one of the 10 best films from the whole decade of the 90s. I actually found it much less cold than the book, which was also excellent, but that's not a criticism: books and movies just work differently. I loathe Sagan's lifelong dedication to scientific materialism, but the story of Contact is superb, as is much of his writing.

Jodie Foster is remarkable in this film. How she did not garner an Oscar nod is beyond me.

Personally, I always felt the movie should have ended much earlier -- on the closeup of her face, staring at something we don't see, tears in her eyes: "I had no idea." Cut to black -- no fade out -- and roll credits. No beach scene, no hearings.

Interesting idea, but WAAAAY too 2001. Also, it completely abandons almost all of the film's major themes.